


trees instead of gravestones

by ObscureReference



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Minor Violence, Other characters mentioned - Freeform, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 17:28:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5936818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObscureReference/pseuds/ObscureReference
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Owain had turned ten a few days ago. He wasn't afraid of the dark anymore. There was no reason for him to wake up in the middle of the night."</p><p>Or:</p><p>Before they jump back in time, before everything goes to <i>complete</i> shit, Ylisstol gets invaded in the dead of night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	trees instead of gravestones

**Author's Note:**

> I'm hypes for Fates and I got thinking about the Awakening cast again. The kids were always my favorite. 
> 
> Title taken from "Big Houses" by Squalloscope. The full lyrics is, "I want trees instead of gravestones/And nothing to confess."

Owain woke up.

His bedroom was dark and quiet, and a thin stream of moonlight illuminated the foot of his bed. The candle at his bedside table had gone out long ago. He didn't bother to relight it. Instead, he laid in the darkness and listened for footsteps in the hallway. There were none.

Nothing seemed out of place, but he couldn't help but keep his eyes open anyway, waiting for something to move or jump out at him. Nothing did. 

Owain had turned ten a few days ago. He wasn't afraid of the dark anymore. There was no reason for him to wake up in the middle of the night.

It didn't feel right to simply lay there, so he shrugged off the blankets that had somehow tangled themselves this way and that around his legs and slid out of bed. The stone was cold under his bare feet, and his thin pajamas provided little warmth. He couldn't help the shiver that ran down his spine from the chill. Still, he padded across the room to the doorway without looking back.

He twisted the doorknob as soundlessly as he could and peered out into the corridor. Empty.

Owain frowned. There was no guard outside the door. There was _always_ a guard outside the door this late.

Something was wrong.

The corridor remained shrouded in darkness as he dashed across the hall, glad Brady's room was so close. Once they had both reached double digits, he and Brady had demanded they be able to sleep separately when Aunt Maribelle visited. They weren't _babies_ anymore, after all.

The change in sleeping arrangements didn't keep them from sneaking into each other's rooms to visit, however. Owain was grateful they hadn't been moved too far apart.

He didn't bother knocking before opening the door to Brady's room and slipping inside. Brady always let him in. And if he didn't let him in this time, something was really, _really_ wrong.

After spending so long peering into the pitch black hallway, it took a moment for his eyes to adjust again. His heart was pounding against his ribcage, though he didn't even notice how nervous he was until he finally made out Brady's sleeping form curled up in the blankets and his pulse started to slow to a normal speed again.

A relieved sigh fell past his lips. Owain barely shut the door the rest of the way before shuffling over to Brady's beside.

He placed his hand against Brady's shoulder and shook.

"Brady," he whispered cautiously, too aware that just because he hadn't seen anyone didn't mean someone wasn't listening. "Brady, wake up!"

"Wha—" Brady cut himself off with a grunt. He scowled tiredly and eyed Owain with one eye open. "Owain? What're ya—"

"Shh!" Owain covered Brady's mouth with the palm of his hand.

Now Brady was fully awake. He sat up and knocked Owain's hand away, frowning.

"What?" Brady whispered. His voice was still thick with sleep. "Are you tryin' to sneak by your parents or somethin'?

Even sitting down, Brady had a little bit of height on him. Owain liked to think the mattress was just giving him an extra boost.

Owain shook his head. "Something's wrong."

Normally he would have been more dramatic about it, describing in detail the shift in the air that had woken him up, the foreboding presence he felt hanging over his head like a dark cloud on an otherwise sunny and glorious day. He loved practicing his "theatrics" and "expanding your vocabulary," as Laurent once described him. But now wasn't the time and Owain didn't have the words. Something was _wrong._

"Like what?" Brady asked. "Is it your Ma? Is she okay? Or your old man or—"

"No," Owain said quickly. Brady was already getting himself worked up and the waterworks would start any moment if Owain let him think something had happened to their parents. Brady had cried for days when he'd heard about Kjelle's father. Owain didn't want to think about his own parents like that.

"Then _what?_ " Brady said, annoyance lacing his voice.

"I don't know. The guards are gone." It was the all the evidence he could offer.

"Which guards?"

"The ones outside our rooms."

Brady glanced to the doorway, then back at Owain. Owain wondered just how well Brady could see in the dark.

"Maybe they're switching out," Brady said, but he didn't sound very sure.

Owain didn't want to panic for no reason. Not that _he_ would ever panic. But for Brady's benefit he said, "Maybe."

Something in the hallway moved with a loud _thunk_. It took Owain a moment to place it. There was another _thunk._

A footstep. A heavy, armored footstep.

The sound rang out again, each time louder than the last, drawing closer. _Thunk. Thunk. Thunk._ Somehow Owain doubted it was guards coming back to their posts. The guard's footsteps never sounded so out of artifical. So unnatural.

The look on Brady's pale face said he heard it too.

Without thinking, Owain grabbed Brady's arm and yanked him out of bed. Their heads nearly smacked together with the force of his pull, and Brady landed on the floor with a loud thump, face first. The blanket, half fallen off the mattress, pooled around him.

"Ouch!" Brady complained loudly, but Owain was already pushing him toward the small gap between the bed and the floor.

"Hide!" He hissed. Whoever was in the hallway was getting closer with every passing moment.

Brady took one glance at his staff on the wall, then crawled under the bed. Owain followed.

His practice sword was still in his own bedroom. Stupid. He hadn't even thought to grab it. His practice sword was smaller and lighter than most other swords—he'd get a bigger one when he got older, his father said—but it was better than nothing.

He wanted nothing more than to face the intruder head-on, but without a weapon Owain was defenseless. His father only ever let him fight people his size anyway, like Inigo. He doubted the intruder was someone he could take head on without a weapon.

Brady was no fighter either. He practically got winded whenever he only _watched_ Owain and Cynthia run laps around the castle. All they could do was hide. 

The soft click of the doorknob turning echoed throughout the room, and Owain realized with a sick twist of his stomach that he had never locked the door. Foolish. His father would have been ashamed at his carelessness.

Brady gasped at the sound. Owain instantly threw his right arm over Brady's back to keep him in place and slapped his other hand over Brady's mouth. They were pressed together tightly. It was an uncomfortable position for both of them, but this time Brady didn't smack his hands away.

Owain kept his eyes focused on the small gap between the floor and the footboard. The door flew open so fast it smacked into the wall with a resounding bang. Without meaning to, he and Brady both jumped.

A pair of unfamiliar armored feet came into view. Whoever the intruder was, they walked like a drunk.

Owain bit his tongue and gripped Brady even tighter.

The footboard of the bed obscured most of his vision, leaving only the armored feet visible. He couldn't risk crawling forward without being caught. Owain cursed that he couldn't see who had come in. But that meant they also couldn't see him either.

Something dragged across the floor with a horrid screech, and he realized what the sound was after he caught sight of an object in the moonlight. Metal on stone. The intruder had an axe.

Brady must have realized the same thing he did, because he sucked in a quick breath against Owain's palm. Owain dug his fingers into Brady's cheek as a warning. _Don't._

With his axe scraping across the floor like he could barely hold on to it, the intruder stepped deeper into the room. The screech of the axe echoed in Owain's ears with each step, somehow coming from all sides as the intruder circled Brady's bed. The armored feet stopped mere inches from Owain's face. Blood rushed in his ears. He prayed to Naga that they wouldn't be found.

After a moment, the intruder moved and Owain dared to suck in a shallow breath.

The axe was dragged farther away from the bed but also deeper into the room. Whoever was in there probably had their backs turned. Owain eyed the open doorway. He wasn't sure he and Brady could both make it out in time.

Something crashed far off to Owain's right and he realized with a start that he could no longer see the axe. Brady jumped under his fingertips. A piece of wood fell to the foot of the bed. It looked a lot like the wardrobe by the wall.

Owain's heart was hammering hard against the confines of his chest again, but he tried his best not to gasp or jump every time another piece of the cabinet broke off and went crashing to the floor. The sound of the axe hitting the wood was so loud he was amazed nobody else came running to check out the noise.

Then again, it was possible they were all already busy with their own intruders. Or dead.

 _Stop_ , he chided himself. There was no use jumping to the worst case scenario just yet. If nobody else was coming, then he would just have to take care of the problem himself. He and Brady were both ten now. They could handle this.

Before he realized it, the crashing stopped. With a deep grunt, the intruder turned on his heel and lumbered back toward the doorway. Every grating screech of the axe dragging across the floor made Owain's ears want to bleed, but when the intruder turned down the corridor and the screeching got fainter and fainter, it sounded more like music.

Owain sat in the silence for a full minute before he began to loosen his grip on Brady's torso. His fingers felt stiff and heavy as he let go. He had been gripping too tightly without realizing it. He sent Brady an apologetic glance.

He rolled out from under the bed first and then gave the all clear when nobody else jumped out of the shadows. He kept one eye on the open doorway as he helped Brady crawl out.

"They were lookin' for us," Brady said, breathless, the moment he was standing again. He had half an inch on Owain, and he looked even older in the moonlight. "They broke the cabinet 'cause they wanted to break us instead."

Owain willed himself to look at the shattered pile of wood that had been the cabinet. He imagined severed limbs in the place of splinters.

"Good thing they didn't find us then," he said.

Brady sniffed loudly, but the tears didn't spill from his eyes just yet. He scrubbed his face with the back of his hand, and Owain pretended not to notice.

"What should we do?" Brady asked.

Owain pressed his lips together. He didn't know who was in the castle. Plegian soldiers, maybe. Maybe worse.

 _Assess the situation_ , his father always said. _Don't go running into trouble just because you want to look good._

He wasn't sure if avoiding trouble was an option in this case.

Owain looked at Brady. He didn't have only himself to worry about either.

Something flashed in the corner of his vision, and within a split second Owain had turned on his heel and pushed Brady behind him. He raised his fists at the doorway in warning. Something thick caught in his throat.

But it wasn't a Plegian spy or the intruder come back. It was Inigo.

"Are you okay?" Owain gasped, dropping his hands to his sides.

Inigo's hair, normally combed to perfection, laid flat against his forehead. There was a tear across his nightshirt. The bottom of his pant leg and foot looked like he had stepped in something rusty. Owain hoped it was mud.

Inigo looked even worse than the time Owain and Cynthia had taken turns throwing mud at him all afternoon. His skin hadn't looked so pale then, nor his eyes so wide.

Brady took a step towards the wall like he was going to grab his staff, but Inigo waved him off. Brady stepped back.

"Risen," Inigo said quickly, ignoring the question. "There are Risen in the castle."

 _Impossible_ , Owain thought instantly. There could never be Risen in Ylisstol. But Inigo's grim face said it was the truth.

Owain's stomach tightened.

If there were Risen in the castle, then all the adults were fighting. That just left them.

"Where's Lucina?" He asked. He glanced behind Ingigo, but his other cousin failed to appear.

"She told me to run," Inigo said. Once again Owain was aware of Inigo's disheveled clothes and hair. "She grabbed her sword and told me to find you. She said she'd catch up. She said mother and father want us to use one of the secret passages out of here."

Behind him, Owain heard Brady's breath hitch. He couldn't blame him. Part of Owain felt like screaming.

Any and all secret passages were knowledge only to Ylissian royalty. They were used explicitly for emergencies in order to escape the castle in times of war. Owain couldn't ever remember a time anybody had used them. Nothing had ever been that bad in Ylisse before.

"What?" Owain croaked.

"We have to go," Inigo said, face grim. "Lucina said to."

Lucina said, Lucina said. It was like that was all Inigo could repeat.

Lucina was thirteen. She was practically an adult. If she told them to use the passages, then what she said goes, especially in battle. But.

"What about our parents?" Brady asked. Owain was grateful he didn't have to do it himself.

"They're all fighting," Inigo said. "I saw your mother. She's healing the wounded."

Owain could practically hear the _but things are bad_ tacked on to the end. Inigo hadn't said he had seen Brady's father or anyone else's parents. He couldn't help but wonder if Inigo was hiding anything from them. Just because he was eleven and older than them didn't mean he was the boss of everyone.

Then he felt Brady sag in relief behind him at news of his mother and thought maybe it was better not to question Inigo too much at the moment.

Owain nodded to himself. He reached back without looking and found Brady's hand, squeezing.

"Let's go," he said.

Before they took off, Owain darted back across the hallway and grabbed his practice sword. He felt a lot better with a real weapon in his hands, even if his palms felt sweaty holding it. He noticed Inigo was carrying a letter opener like a dagger, fingers white around its handle. It was better than nothing.

Brady tried to grab his staff as well, but Inigo told him to leave it. It was too big and clunky to be quiet, and Brady couldn't heal anything major yet anyway. It was the best call. Still, Brady scowled.

Owain grabbed Brady's free hand again before they left, holding it the same way their mothers always held hands.

"You won't need it," he said firmly, prying Brady's gaze away from his staff and onto his own face. "A hero never lets his comrades fall to harm."

"Your toothpick ain't protecting nobody," Brady grumbled, but he didn't pull his hand away.

For once, Inigo didn't have a snarky comment about his bravado.

"Come on," Inigo said. He jerked his head toward the door.

The hallway hadn't gotten any brighter in the time it had taken them to gather their things, and Owain was very aware they were heading in the same direction the intruder—a Risen—had been heading before. Given the way Inigo kept glancing behind them, however, he was sure there were Risen all over the castle.

The thought made Owain clench his jaw. Brady hissed as he held on too tightly, and Owain loosened his grip.

They shuffled down the hallway as swiftly as they could without outright running. There was no use barreling into the unknown.

The castle was eerily silent even for the late hour and Owain couldn't help but wonder where the fighting was taking place. Shouldn't they have heard something by now? Was the main battle merely in the throne room, far below them, muffling the sound? Or had they lost already? Surely if they had won, they would be able to hear the victory celebrations all over the castle. That was what he did every time _he_ won a skirmish.

Owain swallowed. It was impossible that they had lost. No news was good news. The sounds of the battle were merely muffled by the stone. That had to be it.

"We're almost there," Inigo whispered.

He twisted his neck and glanced at Owain and Brady to make sure they heard. When he caught sight of their interlaced fingers, he added, "We're going to be fine." Like he thought they needed to hear it or something.

Owain felt his face heat up and he dropped Brady's hand. Brady pulled back just as fast as Owain scowled at Inigo's back. He was just trying to be _nice._ They weren't _babies._ Inigo always thought he was so much better than them.

With a start he realized they were approaching Mother and Father's room. When they came upon the doorway, however, he saw that the door had already been thrown open. Nobody was inside.

 _Good_ , Owain thought. It meant his parents were fighting somewhere else and hadn't been caught off guard. He wondered why they hadn't sent for him when they first got news of the fighting. Maybe they had. Maybe they didn't have the time.

He thought about the missing guards and shivered.

His father had shown him the passage in their room once, so he and Inigo both pushed the armoire away from the wall while Brady watched. It took all their might and then some—Owain cursed his mother's penchant for clothes—but they eventually pushed it out far enough to reveal the missing stone near the floor.

Inigo stuck his hand into the hole without hesitation. He must have twisted or touched something in there, because after a moment he sat back and pressed the wall with his other hand. A square slab of stone swung inward to reveal a crawlspace.

"We're almost there," Inigo said.

"I know," Owain told him.

There wasn't enough room to stand, so he let Brady crawl in first. Inigo caught him looking at the bedroom door—closed and locked this time, thankfully—and signaled him to go ahead. Owain did.

When Inigo entered as well, he and Owain tried as best as they could to pull the armoire back into place. It was easier said than done. It was a lot harder to get a grip since they had to both squeeze together in the short doorway and they couldn't use their full bodyweight to move it this time. Still, they maneuvered it into place as best they could.

The passageway was easier to stand in past the entrance, and when Owain turned around, he realized Brady was already standing on the stairs that would no doubt lead them down and out. Then Inigo shut the door.

"I can't see anything," Owain said. Without any windows or torches, the stone walls blocked out all light. He couldn't tell where the stairs were anymore. He hoped nobody would fall.

"I can't either," Brady said, voice somewhere ahead of him.

"Neither can I," Inigo said, snappish. "But we can't just stand here and we can't leave the door open. So just feel your way down."

A hero went through all sorts of trials, Owain reminded himself. This was just one of them. If this were a real cave, he could fight a bear or skewer all the bats inside. As it was, he'd make do with not falling down the stairs.

He bumped into Brady when he reached the third step and Brady grumbled something rude, but neither of them fell. Owain ran his fingers along the wall to keep from falling. Behind him, he thought Inigo was doing the same.

The stairs curved along the wall, a spiral design, and it seemed to take hours to walk down them all. Their breathing, three children inhaling and exhaling in the dark, was the only thing that accompanied their footsteps. The chill of the stone still bit into Owain's bare feet, somehow even worse than before. He thought they must have been along an outside wall.

Once, he thought he heard a muffled shriek on his left, the wall connected to the interior of the castle. Owain had frozen in place for a long, awful moment. Then Inigo nudged him in the shoulder and whispered for him to hurry up. So he did.

After what seemed like forever, they came to a stop.

"There's a wall here," Brady said. His voice seemed even softer than normal now that Owain couldn't see his face. Maybe he was tired.

"Are you sure?" Inigo asked.

" I know what a wall is," Brady grumbled. "And there's one _right here_. So there."

"Okay, okay," Inigo said, shuffling past Owain. Their arms brushed on the way down, and Owain was struck with the thought that Lucina or somebody had given Inigo special instructions on how to work the passageway. He didn't seem very bothered by the wall, at least.

It was impossible to see what was happening in the darkness, but there were a few moments of quiet shuffling, and then suddenly the wall was open and Owain could see grass and open skies. The sun still hadn't come up yet, but torches high up on the castle wall illuminated the ground enough to get by.  

"Come on," Inigo said, voice hurried. "Before someone sees us."

Owain was the last one out, and Inigo shut the door behind him. The moveable stone was once again indistinguishable from the rest of the castle. Owain pressed the tip of his sword into the dirt. He remembered the sound of axe against stone and nearly flinched.

"Where are we supposed to go?" Owain asked. How would their parents know to find them again? How would they know to get help if they had to?

Inigo glanced between Owain and the road. Owain looked toward the town. As far as he could see, every there looked just as dark as always. The villagers appeared asleep. Nothing seemed in ruins or in flames. If the castle was supposedly crawling with Risen, shouldn't the town be infested as well?

"The trees," Inigo said slowly, as if testing out the words. "We'll hide in the forest."

True, there were a lot of places to hide in the forest, and it didn't force them to climb down the hill and into the town, which was now possibly enemy territory. But there was a lot of open space between the castle and the tree line, and just as many places for Risen to hide within. And it didn't feel right to simply hide and do nothing while their parents did all the fighting.

"That's your big idea?" Brady said. "Hide in—"

Something sped around the castle corner, cutting off Brady midsentence. A dark shame barreled toward them.

"Go!" Inigo yelped. Owain pushed Brady's shoulder, and somehow, blessedly, Brady didn't stumble. They all took off toward the tree line.

The shape seemed to move faster than was humanly possible, closing the distance between them with impossible speed. Owain had never seen a Risen up close. Maybe they all moved like that when they spotted humans.

The thing definitely growled behind him. Owain picked up the pace. Maybe there were Risen dogs or beasts as well.

The problem was that Brady couldn't run for long. Within moments, he was panting, red faced, and falling behind. The Risen would be on top of him within seconds. Owain couldn't let that happen.

"Keep going!" He shouted at Inigo before turning on his heel and sprinting toward the Risen instead. His practice sword had never felt so heavy in his hand. He cut across the field to place himself between Brady and the enemy. The moment he was within reach, he swung.

It was a sloppy swing, one fueled by adrenalin and less from technique. His father would have been ashamed.

It sent the Risen sprawling in the dirt to avoid it anyway. It leapt far to the left to avoid the blow and rolled several times in the grass, momentum lost.

"Stop it!" The Risen yelped.

Owain lowered his sword, panting. He didn't think Risen could talk. Or sound so. Childish.

"Wait," Owain said, blinking. The Risen stood up.

It was Yarne. Dusty and haggard but definitely Yarne. Owain only vaguely remembered hearing that Yarne and his father would be visiting soon. He had no idea they had come _tonight._

"I could have killed you!" Owain sputtered. Another few inches to the right and he could have taken Yarne's arm off, at least. His stomach churned at the thought.

"Yeah, you could have!" Yarne said. "So watch it next time, alright? There's only one of me left in the whole world. How would it feel to kill a whole species?"

Panne's death had only been a little over a year ago, but Owain still heard the hurt in Yarne's voice.

"What's the matter with ya?" Brady snapped back. "I thought you were gonna kill us! You—"

Brady choked on his words, both because he needed to catch his breath and because he was on the verge of tears. He wiped his face on the back of his hand.

Before Owain realized it, Inigo had caught up to them. He stood at Owain's side, only a little red in the face.

"How did you know where we were?" Inigo asked quickly. "Nobody was supposed to know about that exit."

_And if you know, who else knows?_

Inigo didn't ask the last part but Owain heard it all the same. He was thinking the same thing. He supposed if it had to be anybody to find out, he was glad it was a friend.

"My father told me to find you," Yarne said breathlessly. His ears were twitching and he was hopping from foot to foot like he couldn't stay still. Owain hadn't seen him do that since he was young.

Young _er,_ he reminded himself. They were all still considered children in their parent's eyes.

"But how?" Inigo asked. If Owain didn't know any better, he would have said unflappable Inigo's voice shook.

For the first time, Yarne cracked a smile.

"The nose knows," he said, tapping his own nose. Then the smile fell and he glanced around nervously, ears twitching. "Also, Lucina told me where to go. You guys are really loud. There are gonna be Risen everywhere if we don't get out of here soon."

"Did you see anyone?" Owain asked. He really did mean anyone, be it friend or foe.

"My father and then Lucina," Yarne said. "A lot of Risen. Then I got out of there."

He wondered how many 'a lot' was. Probably not good.

Inigo looked around. They were still alone. For now. An open field was no place to hide.

"We need to find cover," Inigo said. Yarne nodded, serious.

"If there's one thing I'm good at, it's hiding," Yarne said. He sounded almost proud.

Yarne made for the trees, and Inigo was right behind him. Owain made sure Brady had caught his breath and then followed.

Within a few minutes they had enough trees at their backs that the castle was obscured by leaves and bark. Owain couldn't see the field any more. He doubted any Risen could see them either.

Yarne really _was_ good at hiding, as it turned out. It was no wonder he always won at hide and seek whenever Owain challenged him. Yarne's red eyes were a little creepy in the dark—Owain would never say s _cary,_ he wasn't s _cared_ —but he could see detail like no one else could.

While Inigo was pretending not to trip over roots and Owain had to tug Brady out of a hole he'd gotten his foot caught in, Yarne had already squeezed himself underneath a thick line of bushes. He motioned for the others to do the same.

Inigo scowled in distaste, but he crawled into the dirt and leaves with only minor complaint. A twig poked him in the face and he was forced to spit out a leaf before he got comfortable. Normally Owain would have laughed at such a sight, but instead he started at the shrubbery, frozen.

Brady paused at his side as well. Owain could tell they were both thinking about hiding under the bed again, the Risen dragging his horrid axe around the room. How easily he had destroyed the cabinet when looking for them. How much easier it would be for another Risen to stab them through the leaves before they could move.

"Are you coming or not?" Yarne asked hurriedly.

Owain and Brady shared a glance. He thought of his mother and what she would do. The truth was she would be doing her best, healing the injured at the castle. She would not be hiding in the bushes.

But since that wasn't really an option, Owain did the other thing he though this mother would do. He reached for Brady's hand.

While holding Brady's warm hand with one of his own and gripping the cool leather of his sword's hilt with the other, Owain crawled under the bush. It took some maneuvering to hide the glint of his sword without stabbing anyone, but he eventually managed.

Then he was settled, Inigo on one side and Brady on the other. On the other side of Inigo, Yarne laid frozen, like he'd suddenly become part of the scenery. He must have had a lot of practice.

There was nothing to do but wait.

The air outside had nipped at Owain's skin when he'd first stepped outside the castle's walls, and the chill only grew worse as the dew set in. He was relatively okay squeezed between Inigo and Brady, but everywhere their skin wasn't touching—his cheeks, his bare feet, the tips of his fingers—felt nearly frozen. He couldn't tell how well Yarne was doing at the end of their group, but he had fur. Owain was sure he was doing better than Brady, who almost constantly shivered at his side.

Time passed slowly, monotonously. Every creak of the old wood was an enemy's footfalls, every ruffle in the bushes a Risen looking for them. The hours dragged on and on while Owain laid there on high alert, waiting for either a Ylissian or Plegian soldier to stumble upon them. None of them spoke, too fearful they would be heard by someone unsavory.

Owain waited.

The sun's first beams were being filtered through the leaves when he heard the heavy crunch of footsteps drawing closer. Owain jerked his head up, no longer dozing. He felt Inigo and Brady tense on either side of him.

The footsteps drew closer.

"Yarne!" A voice called out. Worried. Tense. "Yarne, where are you?"

"Father!"

Instantly Yarne darted out from the bushes, kicking dirt and leaves up as he went. Owain, Inigo and Brady each came stumbling out after him, limbs stiff from disuse. Owain barely remembered to grab his sword before he went chasing after them.

"Father!" Yarne called again.

"My son! Thank the gods."

Owain squeezed between a gap in the trees where Yarne had disappeared between. Libra was standing on the other side, kneeling and holding his son like he hadn't thought to ever see him again.

Libra looked up at the sound of their footfalls. Yarne jumped back like he suddenly remembered the rest of them were there.

Libra's hair was a little messier than usual and his clothes looked wrinkled from a long night's work, but he looked no worse for wear than the last time Owain had seen him. That had been weeks ago.

"Children," Libra breathed. "I am so glad to find you unharmed. It truly has been a miraculous night."

It suddenly struck Owain that perhaps their parents had been just as worried as they had been.

"What's the news?" Inigo asked, stepping forward. "Is anyone hurt?"

Libra's eyes slid over all of them. His hand did not leave Yarne's shoulder.

"Brady," he said at last. "Your mother and father are both fine. Your father sustained some injuries to his side, but I suspect he will pull through."

He looked at Owain. "Your parents are both fine as well. Your mother is going to have a lot of work on her hands for the next few days, but we managed to repel the worst of the attack. There are no more Risen in Ylisstol."

Owain's shoulders sagged with relief. Beside him, Brady was weeping. Libra turned to Inigo, who stared back, shoulders stiff.

"Inigo," Libra said slowly. "Your mother..."

Inigo sucked in a sharp breath.

Libra's eyes fell shut. "I am so sorry. She is with the gods now."

Inigo's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. Somehow, he looked even worse than he had when he'd first showed up in Brady's room, fresh from a fight.

Owain could barely process it himself. Aunt Olivia was dead. He suddenly wanted to take back every mean thought he'd had about Inigo being stuck up that night. Brady's sobs grew louder.

Inigo took a step forward, clearly dazed.

"Inigo—" Libra started, but Inigo had already sped past him toward the castle.

"I'll go get him," Yarne volunteered with a shaky voice, reluctantly gearing up to give chase. Libra squeezed his shoulder.

"No," he said softly. "It's best he be alone now, I think."

Libra looked at all of them, expression soft. Owain wondered what he saw.

"Let's get back to the castle," he finally said. "It's been a very long night and I'm sure your parents will be happy to see you."

 _Except for Aunt Olivia_ , Owain couldn't help but think. She couldn't be happy. Because she was dead.

Something sharp prickled at the back of Owain's eyes.

"Let us go," Libra said quietly. He didn't let go of Yarne's hand as he led them back through the trees.

Brady's breath hitched when Owain turned to look at him, suddenly exhausted. He couldn't even blame Brady for being upset. Owain would cry as well, but heroes never cried. Not in any stories he'd heard.

Maybe he could just be Owain the Tired instead of Owain the Great this time. Just for a little while. Later.

"Come on," he muttered, grabbing Brady's arm and leading him around any errant sticks he could trip over.

The trip back to the castle seemed to drag much longer than it had taken to walk into the woods. When the gray stone finally came into view, the sun glistening off the rafters, Owain could barely believe he had been in his room just the night before. It felt like so long ago. He couldn't see Inigo across the field. He was probably already inside.

Aunt Olivia was dead. Ylisstol had been invaded right under their noses. Owain had no idea how the town had faired, if the townspeople were even aware of what had happened at all.

 _But_ , Owain thought. _But_.

But they had repelled the attack. Yarne's father said there were no more Risen in Ylisstol. If the Risen couldn't even take them in the middle of the night with a surprise attack, couldn't they defeat anything?

Maybe. Maybe things would be getting better after all.

When Owain thought of that memory again after burying his mother, his father long ago pierced by an arrow brought on by his own stupidity, he thought about how foolish he had been.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to hit me up at my tumblr (http://someobscurereference.tumblr.com/) or leave a comment below.


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